Is this admission fraud? AIBU to report it?

[grammarmom]

Here's the situation.

We live in a grammar school catchment area that gets smaller every year. When we bought our house several years ago, it was very comfortably within the catchment for an excellent local grammar (very high in the league tables), and oh boy was it reflected in the price. Now we're right on the boundary. Among the thirty or so houses around us, some children got in last year and some didn't, literally a difference of a few yards.

Another child on our street, who is in the same class as my DC, only just passed the 11+ (a few points above the pass threshold). We live on the same road, but they are about 50 yards further from the school gate. Based on last year's distances, my child would likely get a place while theirs wouldn't.

Over the weekend, during a sleepover, the child mentioned that her mother has now rented a house much closer to the school to secure a higher priority for admission. The tenancy was apparently signed one day before the cut-off date, making it "legal" for admission purposes. She still owns their original home, but the story being presented is that relatives who were previously "homeless" will now live there free of charge, and all bills and utilities have been transferred into those relatives' names (I strongly suspect that the mother will in fact pay these bills as those relatives are penniless).

She's even moved the children's belongings to the rented property and makes them spend nights there (they hate it). There's no doubt that once the school place is obtained, they will move right back.

This effectively pushes my child down the priority list and means they may now miss out.

Would this constitute admissions fraud? It feels incredibly unfair that someone with £40k to spare for rent can effectively buy their way into a top grammar school, especially when their child didn't perform particularly well in the exam (despite being tutored for hours every day).

Should I report this? I have no more detail apart from what this child told me (and they obviously weren't too sure about some aspects of it due to age).

I have some similar age children in my extended family who would absolutely be able to retell that story in the same level of detail 😀. Obviously child dependant but some children are sponges for hearing and repeating information especially when it affects what school they might go to and the parents discuss it

Id report and leave it to the appropriate authorities to investigate then at least you've done the best by your child

It’s the three Ps
you pay
you pray
or you p* off to another part of town

Yes, I'm assuming they still live in the old house most, or at least some, of the time. I've just looked out the window, and the mum's car is parked outside there, with the ground dry underneath it.

You clearly didn't expect that this child would pass and are put out that they did.

A pass is a pass. It's irrelevant that they only just got a pass, they did and that's all that matters.

You're in favour of sibling priority then?

So if someone moved into a house closer to the school than yours, and their kid qualified - and indeed shrank the catchment area - you'd be happy for your younger kids to have priority over that kid?

I suspect you would. In fact, if you moved further away, I imagine you'd still expect your younger kids to be accepted in their elder sibling's school. I mean that would be legal. Some might say unethical. But legal. And if it's legal, it's not fraud.

In other words, when you play the system, it's completely just. But when someone else does, it's terribly unfair.

This in a nutshell.

Fair enough for owning that , in that case ( that you really can’t let it go ) you need to report it , but if it doesn’t go your way then you need to accept it & also accept that the other mum will know it’s you that’s reported , wouldn’t take a lot to work out and will probably ruin the friendship between your children . Thems the breaks .
As previous poster says we are all somewhat hypocritical and mama bear when it comes to our children

Perfectly legal. As long as it is the child’s main residence at the admission deadline and until the place is offered (in some areas it is until the child starts the school)

You also tried to buy your child a place at the school by moving within what you believed was the catchment area.

Legal or not it is immoral and honestly I would be disgusted although I have to say the fact the child knows so much about the situation is a bit of a weird one for me. Are you sure that this is actually happening? And not that maybe the parents are divorcing and have gotten a second home close to the school for the transition after they split and have not told the kids?
How long before you find out whether your child has a place or not?

I failed my 11+ and went to a terrible secondary school. It didn't stop me getting the highest grade A'levels, admission to a top University and a professional career (incidentally getting higher grades than my friends who did pass). If your children are smart and you value education as a family, they can still do well at a "lesser" school.

IF it is the area/school I think it is (and I appreciate that it might not be) I have some harsh truths for you OP.

Just let it go. To put it in your own terms, it's always the parents scrabbling about with mediocre test scores that backstab each other and talk about children in this awful way. If your child had got high enough scores you wouldn't have to stoop to this level as they could have walked in on an academic place. You and your friend, and your son and his friend, are exactly the same, however disparagingly you talk of them.

“WeegieWe · Today 18:13

grammarmom · Today 17:14
Oh absolutely. The friendship is over after this.
Show quote history
I sincerely hope you are referring to the adult friendships only here OP. Although it has everything to do with your DS and his friend, conversely it also has nothing to do with them. It would be incredibly cruel and unfair to make them end their friendship because of an issue they have no control over and to impose adult issues on them.”

@WeegieWe - i agree with you but i think OP must accept the children’s friendship will likely be terminated by this.

How can it survive when the OP has terminated her friendship with the mother (which may require some explaining)? And particularly if the mother finds out who made the report, which would surely be possible - how can the children’s friendship survive?

It's very common. I know several families who rented near my DC top state primary school to get in. Soon as they were in they moved back to their old place where they had lived for years. All openly done!

You also tried to buy your child a place at the school by moving within what you believed was the catchment area.

What was she meant to do? Deliberately move to an area with a terrible school for the greater good?

Chris what a load of fuss and upheaval for a grammar school

She's a single mother, so no, she is not separating from a husband. And the family moving in will be massively over-housed, three people in a five-bedroom place, so makes zero sense.

Legal- just.
Unethical- very

Well, exactly.

If you have money, you have an advantage and the system means that those who can afford the expensive catchment areas will buy their way in to the best grammar areas, state school areas etc

In this case, someone else has more money and has used it to their advantage and OP doesn't like it.

You simply can't prove any of this.

What she has done is legal She is playing the system just as you played the system by buying there in the first place.

No you shouldn’t report it. Why make a child suffer because of jealousy? The parents are doing their absolute best to give their child a good start in life from what you told us.

Under most local authorities school admissions arrangements, this would be fraud and not legal. You have to have either disposed of your own property or it has to be a situation where you can’t possibly travel back e.g. you’ve moved 100 miles away. You need to check the rules for your own local authority. You can report also anonymously. If it’s within the rules then nothing will happen, if it’s not well, then it’s probably best reported now, where they have time to use her main address rather than get a place and have it removed after offers day.

If you know, then others will know and I bet if you haven’t reported, someone else will.

You continue to dig your own hole. You have admitted that the local school is crap and that the school was a reason.

And just before you get all entitled again and make a complaint. Consider that since you don’t actually know if either of your children got in and hers might have anyway you are basically saying that someone potentially in catchment bought another house in catchment and let their refugee family from a war torn country live in their original house. Either way she still may have got in. It wasn’t like they moved from another town.

Go ahead and complain. Based on the above since neither of you know yet if you got in you will just look vindictive and foolish.

Thats some research-worthy eyesight you have to be able to see dry ground under a car, from a window, at 6.15pm, on a late November evening.

I live in an area where all the schools are very good and this practice happens a lot.

It's only the primary/secondary schools that take a dim view on this and the chances are your DC's place will be revoked...

The Grammer schools have been told but don't do anything, infact the head of one denied any parent of a DC at their school would do this.

And the family moving in will be massively over-housed, three people in a five-bedroom place

How you think this is any of your business is beyond me.